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ca.
1880’s CAVALRY SERGEANT 5 BUTTON BLOUSE OR
UNIFORM COAT – EXCELLENT CONDITION WITH ORIGINAL
CHEVRONS: A true veteran of the Indian Wars
Cavalry, this original 5 button Blouse features original
Cavalry Sergeant Chevrons on both sleeves. Due to the
environments in which they were worn, and that the
relatively few which did survive being poorly stored,
finding any of the Indian Wars era blouses in decent
condition is notable. In the case of this blouse, while
obviously issued and worn, it could not have been worn
heavily, perhaps one the sergeant held back to wear on
special occasions or for special assignments. This
specimen definitely rates as genuinely one of the cream
of the crop when compared to available Indian War era
blouses.
Due to the several changes in pattern and features to
which the standard blouse was subjected during the
Indian Wars era, several features ordered in earlier
patterns such as button or pocket placement bled over
into subsequent patterns. This was the result of the
Quartermaster’s efforts to exhaust the quantities of
existing stocks of clothing before producing a newer
pattern. Where possible, the new changes ordered for
the blouses were incorporated in those currently in the
manufacturing pipeline or those which had not yet been
issued.
In
the best of circumstances, there were no distinct lines
of demarcation in the issue or use of any of the
clothing, weapons, or equipment during the Indian War
era, as is documented in period photographs. Driven by
limited finances and huge stocks of material left over
from the Civil War, the army made every effort to use up
the existing inventory prior to even manufacturing new
material, much less issuing it. So when the army came
to the point of manufacturing new uniforms such as these
five button blouses, and the patterns changed as often
as they did, it is no surprise that some combinations of
features of the different patterns is often encountered
in surviving examples of these Indian War period
uniforms.
Further fogging the identification of distinct patterns,
there were issues of uniforms provided to the soldiers
in kit form, which would be assembled by local company
level tailors. In the process of assembling the
uniforms, a certain level of custom tailoring by the
soldiers was not only tolerated by their company and
regimental officers, but based on period photographs,
this practice may very well have been encouraged to a
point, as the soldiers sought to make their uniforms
more stylish or functional. The practice of local unit
assembly and the allowance for custom tailoring combined
to allow considerable latitude which resulted in
combining features of different regulation patterns.
These characteristics are well documented and described
in John Langellier’s More Army Blue – The Uniform of
Uncle Sam’s Regulars 1874-1887 (both of these
volumes are highly recommended).
This blouse closely follows the general patterns for the
Unlined Blouses adopted by the Quartermaster Department
during the 1880’s. This blouse most closely follows the
general pattern adopted by the Quartermaster Department
in the mid-1880’s with the square corners at the bottom
of the front opening and the single inside breast pocket
on the left side.
The blouse features the collar style and five button
front that is consistent with the patterns adopted
starting in the mid-1870’s and continued through the
1880’s. The bottom of the blouse and the sleeve cuffs
are hemmed and nicely finished. These hems are not
always featured on these blouses - some blouses having
these cloth edges being left unfinished, and possibly an
indicator of the skill of the tailor.
The body is lined with
black polished cotton cloth which is fully intact and
showing almost no evidence of wear. The sleeves are
lined with a beige pin-striped cotton cloth. Like the
body lining, the lining is fully intact in both sleeves,
including at the arm holes and at the cuffs – two areas
which are commonly found heavily worn or tattered.
The five original buttons are intact down the front of
the blouse. There are no buttons at the cuffs and from
what I can determine, there were never any buttons
originally sewn to this blouse.
This blouse shows some indications of gentle use and
wear, but has survived in overall excellent condition as
a very respectable specimen of genuine Indian War era
uniforming worn on the frontier. The wool is very solid
with no weak points, and no open seams. There are a
couple of very minor moth nips, so small that I gave up
trying to photograph them. As noted above, both the
black body lining and the pin striped sleeve lining is
intact, showing very little wear. The hems at the
bottom of the blouse and sleeves are in excellent
condition, unusual to find on these original uniforms.
Overall, this is a very impressive specimen of a
desirable Indian War era uniform blouse which would
never need to be upgraded, and one that would be an
attractive addition to your collection.
SOLD
NOTE: To say that photographing
dark blue wool is a challenge is an understatement. In
normal lighting, it appears black and none of the finer
features or condition details can be seen clearly. In
order to highlight the features, the even dark blue wool
appears to have faded or discolored. This coat has an
even dark blue color as is seen in the overall full
views, the odd coloring coming out when the smaller
details of the coat are photographed so as to be
visible.
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